Structural components are often designed and manufactured separately from non-structural components. For example, vehicles (including automobiles, trains, aircraft, ships, and spacecraft) are often produced by assembling and integrating components from different subsystems. These subsystems may include subsystems directed towards a variety of functions such as structure, power, control, actuation, thermal management, communication, navigation, and propulsion. Individual connections, through wires, cables, waveguides, heat-pipes, switches and other means or devices, may be necessary to interconnect such components for purposes such as data communication, power distribution, vehicle operations control, and thermal management. The resultant system is often full of plumbing, connectors, and interconnecting links.
The complex resultant system may lead to reduced performance, durability issues, higher cost, and other types of problems. For example, the reliability of a subsystem may be far below what is achieved by a structure due to the multiplied deterioration over time and usage of the various components of the subsystem. For instance, every connector of the subsystem may introduce performance degradation, in areas such as electrical conductivity, signal noise, thermal conductivity, and mechanical strength. Moreover, transmission through interconnections may create waste (e.g. power dissipation through distribution may become heat and lead to potential thermal issues) and may further reduce performance.
An integrated device, and method for its use, is needed which may solve one or more problems in one or more existing devices.